Research

Speaking with Ben, our advisor, he gave us direction on a vision of our program and take it to real life.

We conducted a physical run of what we think our game will be on the bare minimum. These are some of the rules that we came up with

2 People

Initially, 1 will be blind and 1 will deaf (there will be no switching of sense for this experiment)

No outsider can help the two

have to have light obstacles to cross

Have an objective, in this case a red shiny button

only the blind can reach the button/objective

Unique to this run.

speech is stationary, ( can’t move with the blind)

information is shared using the spoken English language.

For this run, what we observed and found out

break down in interpretation – since the English language is diverse, small, little turn, rotate and all the other commands is very subjective, little can mean different actions for different people

trust issue – our initial guinea pigs knew each other fairly well but was discovered that the blind just have to trust the voice to take the blind to the destination and being in real life walking with blindfold is hard even if you know the room enough, let alone blindfolded walking over obstacles.

lessons learned

maybe don’t have words, if we are running with robots, beeps can work and still be interpreted differently

have instructions that cant be misinterpreted – but removes the players unique style.

There is the severe lack of internal microphone directionality specifications or any sort of descriptions. They always speak about the battery, the internet and other irrelevant phone specifications. It is very problematic to our project but there are workarounds it but before, that I want to talk about microphone directionality

There are many types of directional mics

A mic that picks up signals from the front and back. useful for interview situations

A mic that is better for the front and sides, can give more directionality in 3 degrees with a little signal coming from the back

Another mic that has three degrees of the signal with none coming from the 180 degrees, captures front and side well.

The ideal microphone for our final project with wide angle for signals to come from to determine the directionality of the person speaking. In terms of applications, this is the most useful one for us.

But like mentioned in the beginning of this post, many companies doesn’t post much about the strength of their mics. In the previous post, I found out that there are many variation in mics even from phones in the same model, as it isn’t needed to be beefed up like a studio mic.

It is a relatively simple app that follows a wealthy walrus as an investor for people to do hypothetical scenarios.

this is the a question for a certain amount of money.

This is what it looks like after picking your answer. your answers are being compared to the other people around the world who have taken this answer.

Every 5th answer there is a super question, that is worth more money.

It is simple, conversation starters and you can figure out people.

I really like this app because it has very convenient features, it is somewhat competitive because you have a frame of reference to what answer you picked vs all the other people who played the question.

There is the super question that is more harder to answer, its like hard mode which make sit something else

the money, it is the incentive for the actions, it adds a layer of game mechanic that keeps the game interesting.

This app has a lot of features that i really like and could incorporate to our final outcome

A thing that serves to relieve inhibitions or tension between two people. I think it usually involves more than two people like a group of people.

But this definition is interesting because it acknowledges the existence of awkwardness, tension or inhibitions that stop people from functioning normally.

Icebreakers are usually used to cut through the heat.

(this post was in no shape or form an advertisement for the Sprite drink)

If it was only this easy to beat the awkwardness, just drink and it’s gone.

But this image above have the classic tells of what is an ice breaker. Beach because it’s hot or a hot day, water because it is refreshing, the guy with a weird outfit consisting of a green underwear or swim suit, almost naked, handlebar mustache and goggles and not what we would call a perfect body, ie a guy hitting the gym. Lastly the giant Sprite bottle with water splashing behind it showing how refreshing it is. Using its awkwardness

Using its awkwardness to be different it can create a certain atmosphere that “this person is not so different from me”. If two people find it funny, it creates a conversation starter, ” Wow that guy has green underwear and he just doesn’t care”. People then get to start thinking, “maybe this person isn’t so different”.

Something funny is great to control the atmosphere.

But I am not going to make a drink and market it as an icebreaker. But I want to incorporate the ideas that the people put behind this advertisement because it really points to an acceptable conclusion that we can think of sprite as an ice breaker.

But a classic childhood icebreaker in the classroom is people bingo.

It is simple, a concept of bingo, but to mark out a box, you have to find a person who has the trait or done the activity on the box.

Its simple, its easy to understand and you talk to people. It generates easy conversation starters.